A Melting Freeway and the War on Terror

Many of you are aware of the recent terrible accident and tanker fire at the SF / Oakland Bay Bridge freeway approach. This event, where a gas tanker truck, traveling above the speed limit at 4:00 AM Sunday morning, hit a guard rail on an elevated section of the freeway connection “maze”. It then landed on its side and burst into flame. Over 8,000 gallons of unleaded gas exploded and eventually the extreme heat caused two separate connector ramps (Interstate 880 & Interstate 580) located over each other, to virtually melt and fall to the ground. This cut-off in these main freeway arteries will take weeks and possibly months to repair. Commuters heading out of San Francisco will now either have to take mass transit or find other, longer routes in going from the city to the East and South Bay regions.

So, where does this fit in with the so called; War on Terror? Actually, what happened with the “melting freeway” was structurally, very similar to what happened in causing the collapse of the WTC Twin Towers on 9/11. Just as the airline gasoline burned so extremely hot that it weakened the tower’s metal structure causing the chain-reaction collapse. This same situation occurred to the two levels of the burning freeway. It is once again another potential wake up call regarding tanker trucks that was initially brought up right after the 9/11 attack.

At that time, there were many discussions as to how a terrorist cell could cause major havoc throughout the US. With the thousands of gasoline tankers roaming the US highways, it would be relatively easy to hi-jack a full tanker, take it to a major bridge or tunnel where its detonation would cause business interruptions for many months thereafter. Dr. Bill Wattenburg, a well known engineer, nuclear scientist and author has said for years that a coordinated attack, using available US tanker trucks holding various common substances such as gasoline, chlorine, propane and other caustic chemicals, detonated at strategic transportation locations could paralyze the US for months. As he had once stated, “If you want to have a major negative effect on the US world. national and local economies, stop its transportation and mobility systems. As an example, look at the turmoil in the US economy that occurred right after 9/11 when all the airplanes were grounded just for a few days”

Mr. Wattenburg went on to give an example of what could happen if a large gas tanker were to explode on a key suspension bridge such as the Golden Gate, the SF Bay Bridge or any of the multiple suspension bridges located in New York City. The negative effect that the extreme heat would have on the suspension cables would weaken the bridge to the point that large numbers of cables would need to be replaced. It would take months and possibly years to replace all the weakened cables on a major suspension bridge. If a tanker were detonated in any of the tunnels under the rivers in New York City, it could take months or years to get them back into operation.

Yes, this was brought up in the 9/11 investigation. There are currently background checks on tanker truck drivers and restrictions as to which roads and bridges that tankers can use. However, other than that, a tanker is not monitored much more than any other highway tractor-trailer. For some reason, this issue has been ignored even more than has any substantial action on securing the US ports and borders.

This recent tanker accident in the SF/Oakland area should be a major wake-up call for the local officials as well as for the national Homeland Security Agency. It was also very fortunate that the tanker incident occurred at 4:00AM on a Sunday with the only injury being 2nd degree burns to the tanker driver that was able to escape the fire. Had this occurred during the rush hour, there would most likely have been many deaths and injuries. In any case, that critical freeway artery will still be out of commission, causing a number of commuter and transportation hardships for some time. Based on past administration responses to emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina & Rita, the Walter Reed debacle and the monitoring of US ports and borders, I’m not holding my breath on this one being another “wake up” call for the Homeland Security Agency.

It is sad that the strongest and wealthiest country in the world is so poorly prepared to protect itself and its people under these very common circumstances.